


Dreams of Reality

by UmbriFiica



Category: Original Work
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Amnesia, Difficult Decisions, Gangsters, Gen, Italian Mafia, Past Relationship(s), Police, References to Depression, Reincarnation, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 17:40:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15756585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UmbriFiica/pseuds/UmbriFiica
Summary: The Seven Years War ended but the effects rippled out into the worlds. Loopers started being born, the reincarnated souls of people who had been in the war, people who had left things unfinished. Sometimes they remember who they were, sometimes they don't. If they're lucky, meeting other Loopers ends in memories recovered and happiness found. If they're not, they don't even recognize that they're about to end in tragedy again.





	Dreams of Reality

**Author's Note:**

> This is a small part of a large story, in a large universe. I do plan to expand it, but at the moment I think it stands by itself. There's a little bit of language, but nothing over the top. This hasn't really been edited, but I hope you enjoy it.

"Don't you ever get tired, Will?" Her voice echoes in the warehouse, making it hard to pinpoint her location. He slides along the edge of another shipping container, gun at the ready.

"Not really." He doesn't bother telling her that his name isn't Will again. The less he says, the more she'll talk and that's going to be the fastest way to find her.

"Oh, come on!" A grin comes to his face when she explodes. Forward, to the left. "You mean to tell me that you're happy with this, with 'fighting the good fight'? It's never gonna end, Will. There's always gonna be another big bad out there to take place of the one you put away. Don't you see? Good can't win. You've given everything to this job, your health, your family, your sanity... You happy to give your life too? 'Cuz that's how this'll end." She's shouting and he can tell that she's moving. He wants this done before backup gets here. The other boys will be cruel if they take her down and he knows he shouldn't give a shit - she is just another gangster - but he doesn't want it to end like that.

"Better be careful, Lovely. I might start thinking you care." A chain rattles behind him and he whips around, peering into the dark corners. A crooked laugh whispers by his ear and he whirls again, heart pounding. Damn, he's getting too old for this. 

"Of course I care, Will. I hate to lose my best playmate. It's always so hard to train a new one." She has to be close now, though it's hard to say who is tracking who at this point.

"You don't have to. Turn yourself in, help us take down the mob." He doesn't say  _I can save you_ , not even to himself.

"And what will I receive for my efforts? Relocation and a shiny new death sentence from people I taught to kill. Where you gonna put me that they won't find me? Offworld? You know I hate flying. Are you gonna come with me? Hold my hand after they find me and tell me to close my eyes, it'll all be over soon?" She laughs again, sounding tired and broken and not a little bit crazy. "I've told you before, Will. I don't want saved. I walked into this life with my eyes wide open."

"But why? Why Lovely, why did you choose this?" The desperation in his voice shocks him and for a moment he wants to forget why he is chasing her, gun drawn. He just wants to find her, to hold her and ask who broke her. The cold click of a catch being drawn back reminds him. He's not hunting a little lost girl that's hiding from the dark. She is the dark. A cold-blooded murderer, a mobster, a shadow that even the cops fear. He can't let himself forget that. It doesn't matter how much she likes him - right now he is a threat and they have all seen how Lovely deals with threats. She will kill him if he isn't careful, if he forgets what she is. And he may be an old, cynical son of a bitch, but he's sure as hell not ready to die yet. So when he turns the corner to see her back not ten yards away, he aims his gun at her heart without hesitation. His curiosity gets the better of him though and instead of calling out that she's under arrest or to drop her weapon, he repeats his question. 

"Why did you choose this, Lovely?" Her shoulders tense and her head shifts slightly toward him but she doesn't drop her gun and she doesn't turn to face him. "Of all the things you could have been, why a Comare? You could have done so much good."

"Good?" A bitter laugh shakes her entire body. "Good doesn't ever win. Good only gets the people you love killed. Why in Hell would I want to be good?" She spits out the word like it burns.

"It doesn't look like you're winning now. And bad is what kills all those loved ones. Look at how many lives you've shortened, how many families you've destroyed."

"Everyone I've killed was already destroying their family!" Her angry shout fades to almost a whisper. "Even if they didn't know it yet."

"You don't really believe that." He isn't trying to antagonize her, but his gun is getting heavy and he thinks he can hear the sirens that are headed their way. If this is going to end, it needs to end soon. "I'm surprised you can sleep at night with all the ghosts you've made."

"You think their ghosts are what keep me up?" A sigh and her head sinks down wearily. "You ever dreamed you were someone else, Will?  Dreamed it so real that you couldn't tell which life was truth when you woke? You know how lost that makes a person feel?"

"I do." His answer is soft but sure, a confident truth.

"I believe you do. Maybe that's why I like you so much." She lifts her head, hearing the sirens too. "I've been good, Will. You wouldn't believe how good I am in that other life. All I do is give. Give and lose. I'm not gonna live two lives like that. So I'll take what I want and live for myself, and I won't let anything live that can hurt me. Even if I love it." Her hand tightens on her gun and a thrill of unease runs through him. He is not surprised to find that he wants her to come out of this alive. Even so, he won't die for her.

"Don't do it, Lovely." He tightens his aim, praying he doesn't have to shoot her.

"Call me Kat." The shock of a real name almost makes him drop his own gun - almost - and the sadness in her voice makes him ask.

"Who broke you, Kat?"

"The world." She spins, dropping to a crouch and lifting her gun as she does.

They both fire.


End file.
